Electronic World: electrocutes instantly

The social network is lately full of scandal. Scandal production rises to meet the speed of communication. Is there more scandal-- or just more reporting? Trump's adultery, Michael Cohen's payoffs, Stormy Daniels making a media splash-- has been happening since Adam and Eve or, at least, since Luci and Dezi took over the television airwaves.

So, what has changed?

Transparency. The incredible transparency that allows us to get the dirty details on everybody. Think of the big names that disappeared from the scene almost instantly-- Charlie Rose, Louis CK, Russell Simmons, Matt Lauer, Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken, Elliot Spitzer, Bill O'Reilly.  Those bights ignited, burned quickly and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The speed of collapse has changed. Decades of stardom gone in a few days.

We learn too much sometimes--  the sexual behaviors of Dustin Hoffman, bothered me. I liked his movies... including Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate most of all. Now I have to push Dustin Hoffman's rumored sexual behaviors out of my mind when I watch those films.

Ronan Farrow turns out to be the Sherlock Holmes of our era. Ronan did what The New York Times, Washington Post, etc could not do without him-- got the #metoo movement going.

Ronan got published in The New Yorker to get those Harvey Weinstein stories out. Ronan entered the annals of American history with his reporting on Harvey Weinstein. Ronan began his public career on shaky ground He failed as a MSNBC TV personality starting at too young. But he came back as a muckraking journalist and has changed society. Maybe Ronan has a political future?

Woody Allen is Ronan Farrow's father. Ronan stuck tightly to his sister's accounts of Woody having abused her sexually as a child. We have no proof of what actually happened but does that matter? Once the rumor takes hold, publish the rumor. Suddenly Woody seems guilty in the court of public opinion. Nobody cares to hear Woody's side of the story.

Woody has a wonderful sense of humor. Now I gotta consider Ronan's sister when watching a Woody Allen film. This places Ronan's sister on equal footing with Woody Allen-- one of the great comic geniuses.

Donald Trump has eluded the rapid fire dangers of the social network. Trump has brilliantly exploited the technology to great advantage.

Interesting the Donald Trump figured out Twitter at 70 years of age. Donald showed a preternatural ability to recognize Twitter as such an effective tool. He revolutionized American politics with the Twitter method for communicating with the electorate, at least his portion of it. This has nothing to do with morality. Twitter is available to us all.

Just remember... the electronic world electrocutes instantly.

Distracted living: Breaking News always breaking….

In December 2017 we finally crossed the barrier, the barrier regarding how much stimulation the human brain can tolerate. Another word for over-stimulation is distracted living and I fear this is the life we are all leading.

The constant sexual harassment stories has brought the volume and intensity of news to the awareness of the American population. I cannot speak for the entire country but now I notice even the newscasters have been nudged beyond their comfort zone.

Breaking news… maybe this phrase was magnified by CNN and around the time of the first Gulf War in 1990? A grim, serious face newscaster like Bernard Shaw would intone news about the war in Kuwait and/or Iraq. A sudden audio cue would emanate from the screen and the phrase “Breaking News” would cross the screen in a large font. We were being cued like Pavlov’s dogs to respond to the aural cue and the catchy phrase that some event had just occurred and was even more noteworthy than whatever was being discussed previously. Switch to new topic. With bated breath we get the new, bigger story and we sponge it up like one of Sponge Bob’s underwater buddies.

So now we get the list of Sexual Harrassers and it grows rapidly, seemingly every day. As for the present count, I list a few—and not in any particular order:

Matt Lauer—host of the “Today” show for nearly 20 years, an icon of early morning TV when the stories are cheerful. The accusations of locking women into his office for sexual activity cost him his job—ending his career in the blink of an eye.

John Conyers—88 year olds, U.S. representative from Michigan since 1965, allegedly use public monies to buy the silence from his female victim/employee. If true, that’s a wicked case of political manipulation.

Louis CK—a brilliant comic performer who liked performing after the show, taking off his clothes in his hotel room to show female guests his latest schtick.

Charlie Rose—“Jurassic” -- a term which would seem to apply here and to several others. These patriarchs rise early for work but still have a fire-in-the-oven for hiring and pursuing interns in the after-hours. 

Glenn Thrush—NY Times reporter, apparently not always a mild-mannered reporter. Drinking helps with social inhibition but got Glenn is some trouble.

Al Franken—another U.S representative, this one from Minnesota. Another Midwestern reps from the north country, up where Bob Dylan and the Coen brothers, famed filmmakers known for their noir perspective--  people finding themselves in dark situations. That’s where Al Franken, allegedly a serial butt-grabber, finds himself now.

Roy Moore—candidate for U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, showed that Southern proclivity for finding the least appropriate sexual partner (often a cousin or other family member). Roy is accused of soliciting teenagers when he was a 32 year old man prowling the malls for high school girls. Alabama voters prefer an accused child molester to a Democrat, a sign of the times if there ever was one.

That’s enough on the Sexual Harrassment front… there are other names—Harvey Weinstein, Donald Trump, Kevin Spacey, and Jeffrey Tambor—but let’s quite while we’re ahead… or is it behind? Weak pun, I know. Oh, and Garrison Keeler, retired host from "Prairie Home Companion", 75 years old and the only man in the bunch to make an effort at self-defense. 

That’s enough distracted living for the moment. More “Breaking News” will happen before long. Stand ready with your phone, or by your television set. The host has changed—Stephanie Ruhle (she’s no Bernard Shaw)? But the news has only learned to break faster and faster. The pace has quickened in the 27 years since 1990.

We, the audience, demanded it, but now we may truly be sick of it. Distracted living takes a toll.